U.S. to join U.K. in new Iran sanctions
The United States will name Iran, as well as its Central Bank, as a “primary money laundering concern,” on Monday but not place sanctions directly on the central bank, a senior Treasury Department official tells CNN.
The U.S. will also sanction a number of Iranian companies allegedly supporting Iran’s nuclear program, the senior Treasury Department official said.
The announcement comes on the same day Britain cut all financial ties with Iran over concerns about Iran's nuclear program, the first time it has ever cut an entire country's banking sector off from British finance, the British Treasury announced.
The Treasury Department released a statement saying that Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will be make remarks at 430p ET Monday to "outline new steps the United States is taking to increase pressure on Iran."
The actions come in response to a recent report by the International Atomic Energy Agency’s (IAEA) which expressed serious concern over what it said was Iran’s continuing work on its nuclear program.
Israel's Defense Minister Ehud Barak told CNN's Fareed Zakaria that Iran is probably less than a year away from being at a point that it will be too late to stop its nuclear program.
"It's true that it wouldn't take three years, probably three quarters, before no one can do anything practically about it because the Iranians are gradually, deliberately entering into what I call a zone of immunity, by widening the – the redundancy of their plan, making it spread over many more sides," Barak said on Fareed Zakaria GPS.
U.S. has been considering action against the Central Bank of Iran but officials became concerned that a full sanction could have a negative effect on the world economy because of the potential impact on oil prices.
This weekend, Elise Labott reported the US will impose fresh sanctions against Iran’s petrochemical industry, citing diplomatic sources.
A number of congressional members have been calling for sanctions against the central bank amidst questions about how much the current spate of sanctions are actually working.
-CNN
CIA Spies Caught, Fear Execution in Middle East
In a significant failure for the United States in the Mideast, more than a dozen spies working for the CIA in Iran and Lebanon have been caught and the U.S. government fears they will be or have been executed, according to four current and former U.S. officials with connections to the intelligence community.
The spies were paid informants recruited by the CIA for two distinct espionage rings targeting Iran and the Beirut-based Hezbollah organization, considered by the U.S. to be a terror group backed by Iran.
"Espionage is a risky business," a U.S. official briefed on the developments told ABC News, confirming the loss of the unspecified number of spies over the last six months.
"Many risks lead to wins, but some result in occasional setbacks," the official said.
Robert Baer, a former senior CIA officer who worked against Hezbollah while stationed in Beirut in the 1980's, said Hezbollah typically executes individuals suspected of or caught spying.
"If they were genuine spies, spying against Hezbollah, I don't think we'll ever see them again," he said. "These guys are very, very vicious and unforgiving."
Other current and former officials said the discovery of the two U.S. spy rings occurred separately, but amounted to a setback of significant proportions in efforts to track the activities of the Iranian nuclear program and the intentions of Hezbollah against Israel.
"Remember, this group was responsible for killing more Americans than any other terrorist group before 9/11," said a U.S. official. Attacks on the U.S. embassy and Marine barracks in Beirut in 1983 killed more than 300 people, including almost 260 Americans.
The U.S. official, speaking for the record but without attribution, gave grudging credit to the efforts of Iran and Hezbollah to detect and expose U.S. and Israeli espionage.
"Collecting sensitive information on adversaries who are aggressively trying to uncover spies in their midst will always be fraught with risk," said the U.S. official briefed on the spy ring bust.
But others inside the American intelligence community say sloppy "tradecraft" -- the method of covert operations -- by the CIA is also to blame for the disruption of the vital spy networks.
In Beirut, two Hezbollah double agents pretended to go to work for the CIA. Hezbollah then learned of the restaurant where multiple CIA officers were meeting with several agents, according to the four current and former officials briefed on the case. The CIA used the codeword "PIZZA" when discussing where to meet with the agents, according to U.S. officials. Two former officials describe the location as a Beirut Pizza Hut. A current US official denied that CIA officers met their agents at Pizza Hut.
From there, Hezbollah's internal security arm identified at least a dozen informants, and the identities of several CIA case officers.
Hezbollah then began to "roll up" much of the CIA's network against the terror group, the officials said.
One former senior intelligence official told ABC News that CIA officers ignored warnings that the operation could be compromised by using the same location for meetings with multiple assets.
"We were lazy and the CIA is now flying blind against Hezbollah," the former official said.
CIA Spies Caught in Iran
At about the same time that Hezbollah was identifying the CIA network in Lebanon, Iranian intelligence agents discovered a secret internet communication method used by CIA-paid assets in Iran.
The CIA has yet to determine precisely how many of its assets were compromised in Iran, but the number could be in the dozens, according to one current and one former U.S. intelligence official.
The exposure of the two spy networks was first announced in widely ignored televised statements by Iranian and Hezbollah leaders. U.S. officials tell ABC News that much of what was broadcast was, in fact, true.
Hezbollah's leader, Sayyed Hasan Nasrallah, announced in June of this year that two high-ranking members of Hezbollah had been exposed as CIA spies, leading U.S. officials to conclude that the entire network inside Hezbollah had been compromised.
In Iran, intelligence minister Heidar Moslehi announced in May that more than 30 U.S. and Israeli spies had been discovered and an Iranian television program, which acts as a front for Iran's government, showed images of internet sites used by the U.S. for secret communication with the spies.
U.S. officials said the Iranian television program showed pictures of people who were not U.S. assets, but the program's video of the websites used by the CIA was accurate.
Some former U.S. intelligence officials say the developments are the result of a lack of professionalism in the U.S. intelligence community.
"We've lost the tradition of espionage," said one former official who still consults for the U.S. intelligence community. "Officers take short cuts and no one is held accountable," he said.
But at the CIA, officials say such risks come with the territory.
"Hezbollah is an extremely complicated enemy," said a U.S. official. "It's a determined terrorist group, a powerful political player, a mighty military and an accomplished intelligence operation, formidable and ruthless. No one underestimates its capabilities."
Source-ABC
Adele and Taylor Swift rule at American Music Awards
Adele and country star Taylor Swift have won three awards each at the audience-voted American Music Awards.
Adele, absent as she recovers from throat surgery, won the pop/rock prizes for best female and best album, for 21, as well as adult contemporary artist.
Swift, who beat Adele to artist of the year, said "you have no idea what this means to me", having written her album Speak Now solo.
Rapper Nicki Minaj won two gongs, voted for by the US public.
"This is one of the craziest things that has ever happened to me," Swift said at the Los Angeles ceremony.
"I have no idea what I'm supposed to say - I did not think this was going to happen."
The 21-year-old star, who also beat Lil Wayne, Katy Perry and Lady Gaga to artist of the year, also won best female country artist for a second year running and best country album.
Lady Gaga and rapper Lil Wayne went home empty-handed while Katy Perry picked up a special award for becoming the first woman to score five number one US singles from one album, Teenage Dream.
Adele had led the nomination field with four nods.
Minaj, who opened the show in a metallic outfit complete with speakers on her bottom, won the rap/hip-hop prizes for best artist and best album, for Pink Friday.
"This one could actually make me cry," Minaj said, picking up the latter.
Maroon 5 - whose duet with Christina Aguilera on their hit Moves Like Jagger was among 17 performances on the night - were voted best pop/rock group while Bruno Mars was named best pop/rock male.
In the soul/R&B category, Usher was best male, Beyonce was best female and Rihanna won best album for Loud.
Blake Shelton was voted best country male while Lady Antebellum won best country group.
Foo Fighters were favourite alternative rock act while Jennifer Lopez, who performed On the Floor, was favourite Latin artist.
Her performance with Will.i.am on his new single Hard was one of a number of collaborations at the 39th American Music Awards , shown live in the US on the ABC TV network.
Justin Bieber - the winner of four AMAs last year - performed Mistletoe, from his Christmas album Under the Mistletoe, while Kelly Clarkson, Katy Perry, Chris Brown and Enrique Iglesias also sang.
Chevron takes full responsibility for Brazil oil spill
US oil company Chevron says it accepts full responsibility for an oil spill off the coast of Brazil.
Chevron said it had underestimated the pressure of underwater oil deposits while drilling, causing oil to rush up the bore hole and seep into the surrounding seabed.
Brazilian regulators said 416,400 litres had leaked since the accident happened almost two weeks ago.
Chevron said the leak had now been plugged.
But the head of Chevron's Brazil operation, George Buck, said there continued to be a residual oil flow from undersea rock near the well in the Frade oil project, 370km (230 miles) off the Brazilian coast.
Earlier this week, Brazil's Energy Minister Edison Lobao said the company would be "severely punished" if it was found to have failed in its environmental responsibilities.
'Questionable methods'
Chevron initially estimated that 400-650 barrels of oil had formed a sheen on the water after seeping from the seabed near the well.
But the international environmental group Skytruth said satellite images suggested the spill was many times bigger.
Police environment experts have been trying to assess the scale of the spill.
Head of the Federal Police Environmental Division Fabio Scliar also questioned the methods Chevron was using to clean up the spill.
Mr Scliar said the company was "pushing" the oil to the bottom of the sea, rather than gathering it, putting corals in the area at risk of pollution.
In recent years Brazil has discovered billions of barrels of oil in deep water that could make it one of the world's top five producers.
So far there has been little public debate about the environmental dangers of offshore drilling.
Political discussion has instead focused on how future oil revenues should be divided between different states.
Trade unions in T&T talk of bringing down the Govt
The trade union movement plans to bring down the Government by not supporting its re-election, president general of the Oilfield Workers Trade Union (OWTU) Ancel Roget has said.
Speaking at the community meeting held by the Joint Trade Union Movement in Point Fortin on Saturday evening Roget said, "Government would have never been in power if it was not for the labour movement's support and he made no apologies for the trade unions' plan to bring down the Government.
Roget told the Express "Government will not be getting the labour movement's support. They have attacked the labour movement and the workers of this country and have betrayed them and therefore we believe that a campaign must start highlighting all of these issues and if they think that means bringing them down, then so be it."
Roget said the unions are insisting that the State of Emergency which was called was to stymie the progress and the campaign of the trade union movement for better wages and terms and conditions and continue to call for its immediate end because it is hampering their mobilisation.
"The unions pledged their support to resist in whatever way necessary the imposition of the five per cent and we did say that the Government can take us to the courts and ask the courts to impose the unfair five per cent wage settlement on us. But in the hearts and minds of the people of this country we are not taking that just like that, because there is a political price to be paid.
"We will insist that they will not be returned to governance. They have betrayed the trust of the people of Trinidad and Tobago, we cannot support all of the nonsense.
"At the end of the State of Emergency whether it ends next month, next year, or before the elections, it must end and when it ends we are calling on all citizens, all workers to be prepared for a massive street demonstration in the likes of which this country has never seen before."
The demonstration he said will be to highlight their disapproval of the type of governance which has taken place since May 24 last year.
Roget added that despite the inclement weather on Saturday there was a large turnout to the meeting that was initially scheduled to be held at the Point Fortin Town Hall but which had to be relocated to the Festival Square in Point Fortin.
-TRINI EXPRESS
Peru archaeologists find pre-Inca sacrificed babies
Researchers at the Sillustani archaeological site in Peru say they have found the bodies of 44 children thought to have been sacrificed between 600 and 700 years ago.
They were buried in pairs in baskets placed around stone funerary towers.
Researchers said their ages ranged from newborns to three years old.
The archaeologists believe they belonged to the Kolla culture, which ruled parts of the Puno region of southern Peru between 1200 and 1450.
All the bodies had a volcanic stone placed on their chest, and were surrounded by a variety of offerings, including animals, food, dishes and pitchers, archaeologist Eduardo Arisaca said.
Researchers at the site say ceramics with paintings of scenes of war found with the bodies suggest the children were sacrificed during a period of conflict between the Kolla and a rival culture.
They said the bodies were found near a 10m-tall (32ft) circular stone tower known as Chullpa Lagarto.
The bodies of some 200 people have been unearthed near the tower at the Sillustani site some 1,300km (800 miles) south-east of the capital, Lima.
Rihanna `not fit’ – Bajan church leader
Concerned that Barbados is in a state of decay and immorality, a church leader has accused world-class singer Rihanna of “always doing foolishness”, and called her unworthy of being an ambassador.
At a service launching the Independence anniversary celebrations being put on by the Democratic Labour Party (DLP), Bishop Dr Marlon Husbands took issue with some of the actions of the pop star, and also expressed concerns about the level of indiscipline, immorality and homosexuality in the country.
Speaking at the Sanctuary Empowerment Centre on Country Road, St Michael, before an audience that included Acting Prime Minister Ronald Jones, President of the Senate Sir Branford Taitt and Speaker Michael Carrington and fellow Members of Parliament Steve Blackett and Patrick Todd, Bishop Husbands lambasted Rihanna for the controversy that ensued last September in Dublin when a farmer told her to cover up after she stripped down for a video in a wheat field.
Barbados above US
The World Economic Forum has ranked Barbados’ infrastructure – its roads, bridges, airport, harbour and other facilities – ahead of the United States’.
In its latest global report on competitiveness, the WEF placed Barbados in the 22nd spot, a notch above the United States at 23rd.
In the United States the classification triggered much anguish about the state of the infrastructure and criticism of the Forum’s methodology that measures competitiveness.
American experts and analysts are asking the question: is Barbados’ infrastructure that good or America’s really so bad?
The discussion is being waged in blogs and the Washington Post newspaper.
The American Society of Civil Engineers has given the United States’ infrastructure a failing “D” grade.
Tiger Woods wins winning point for United States in the Presidents Cup
Tiger Woods earned the winning point as the United States beat the International team 19-15 to clinch the Presidents Cup in Melbourne.
Woods beat Australian Aaron Baddeley 4&3 to give the US the 18 points they needed to retain the Cup.
The US led 13-9 going into the singles and lost the first four matches, but on a tense afternoon Woods sealed victory from the penultimate pair.
"It feels good," said Woods. "I hoped it wouldn't come down to my point."
Woods's victory was a repeat of 2009, when he hit the winning putt against South Korea's YE Yang at San Francisco to hand the United States their sixth Cup.
The former world number one, who was a controversial wildcard pick after injuries and a serious slump in form, credited team-mate Steve Stricker for a putting tip.
"I played well all week, but unfortunately didn't make any putts in the first four matches," said Woods, who earned two points out of a possible five. "Today was a different deal - they poured right in."
US captain Fred Couples, celebrating his second win in charge, said: "For Tiger to get the winning point makes us feel very good as a team.
"I don't think I've ever been vindicated in golf, but I feel like I know what I'm doing. When I picked Tiger a month early, he worked six to eight hours a day on his game.
"When a guy looks you in the eye and says: 'Don't worry about me, I'll be right', it brings a smile to your face, especially when it's Tiger.
"I got frustrated a bit (by the attacks on his selection) because I felt I was picking the greatest player I've ever seen play.
"I heard he was the Tiger of old today and Aaron Baddeley said it was phenomenal."
The International team, who last won the Presidents Cup in 1998, also at Royal Melbourne, made a fast start on a sunny day in Victoria.
Wins for KT Kim, Charl Schwartzel, Ryo Ishikawa and Geoff Ogilvy against Webb Simpson, Dustin Johnson, Bubba Watson and Bill Haas respectively gave them hope.
But Hunter Mahan trounced Jason Day 5&3 and David Toms thrashed Robert Allenby 7&5 to nudge the US ahead.
Adam Scott kept the Internationals in the hunt with a 2&1 win over the previously unbeaten Phil Mickelson, while Nick Watney defeated KJ Choi 3&2.
But Jim Furyk maintained his 100% record with a 4&3 victory over Ernie Els to take the US to the brink before Woods sealed victory.
In the two games still going, South Africa's Retief Goosen beat Matt Kuchar and Stricker overcame YE Yang to widen the gap to four points again.
International team captain Greg Norman said: "The guys stepped up to the plate, very, very proud of them for doing that.
"My team can hold their heads up extremely high. We'll take a lot out of this tournament."
South Africa's Garth Mulroy wins Alfred Dunhill title
South African Garth Mulroy won the Alfred Dunhill Championship at Leopard Creek after a final round 68 saw him hold off a challenge from Scotland's George Murray.
Murray, from Anstruther, shot a closing 67 to put pressure on Mulroy, but he eventually finished two shots behind.
Birdies for Mulroy at the 15th and 16th holes meant he could close with two pars to win the title.
Scotland's Peter Whiteford finished tied for third after a final-round 71.
Mulroy led by two shots after the third round and was three under par for his final round until a dropped shot at the par-four 14th.
He responded immediately and the birdies at the 15th and 16th gave him a cushion over Murray that he would not relinquish. He finished on 19 under par.
Murray sparkled in his final round making birdies at the eighth, 10th and 11th holes before an eagle three at the par-five 15th.
He was closing in on Mulroy but could not finish better than level par over the last three holes, ending on 17 under par for the tournament.
England's Steven Tiley finished joint ninth, while compatriots Robert Dinwiddie, Graeme Storm and Sam Little all tied for 15th.
This is the third professional title Mulroy has won in his homeland - in 2008 he won both the Coca Cola Championship and the Vodacom Origins title.